Potential New Strikers?

[ferrarilover]

Genuinely not my usual style, but I would happily award MOTY to any of our players who ended this bloke's career.

Matt.

[AustrianAndyGull]

I'd probably ask them to take it a step further, maybe take out a few limbs or something.

[Yellow4life]

Craig Westcarr?

Released by Chesterfield and at 27, hardly old.

[gullno4]

I imagine we won't be able to afford him !!

[royalgull]

was at Walsall, imagine he'd go back there.

i wouldnt' be against us signing a target man 6ft + unit from somewhere. Lets face it we don't play football anymore and someone like that coupled with getting Rene on the end of things in the box would make us a real handful with limited resources. Easier and cheaper doing that to trying to find the 2 or 3 ball players/creative winger types that we want to play but don't have the tools for.

[brucie]

I wouldn't be against us taking Zebroski back but imagine say if we signed Hughes. I mean I wonder what Port Vale fans actually think. Could you imagine rocking up to Plaimoor and actually cheering on this rodent. Just couldn't do it myself. I would stay away.

[stevegull]

I wouldn't be against us taking Zebroski back but imagine say if we signed Hughes. I mean I wonder what Port Vale fans actually think. Could you imagine rocking up to Plaimoor and actually cheering on this rodent. Just couldn't do it myself. I would stay away.

Quite right.

[Dave]

Not having a go at anyone I am really not, just making a statement, this we cant afford this player, we have not got any money , not a pot to piss thing is really getting right up my nose now, utterly fed up of hearing about it.

Yes we have a limited budget we allways have, has not stopped us from signing the likes of Russell, Fowler, Graham, Kuffour etc, and it didn't stop us from bringing Bobby.O down from Scotland or Downes from Chesterfield..we wont know who can or can not afford untill you ask.

[AustrianAndyGull]

I am a little confused not difficult where i'm concerned though.

Ling has said that he will only bring in a striker on loan if he is better than what he have and that MacDonald has proved a success in defence and he would want a similar outcome from a striker should he go out and get one.

My argument is this: How good a striker is usually dictated by how many goals they score and therefore the ones who will be available for loan deals won't have a prolific strike rate otherwise they generally wouldn't be going out on loan. This is especially true at League 2 level. For example, a player who plays for a Championship club might not be getting a look in there and have a poor goals return but go on loan to a League 2 club and score more times than a junkie. A player who isn't getting a look in at League 1 or 2 level and has a poor strike rate is likely to be the type of player we are looking for.

I believe ( having been a striker myself ) that strikers are totally different to other positions on the pitch and at any given time, a striker can hit a purple patch for whatever reason and go on a run of form. Just like it can go the other way and they not score for ages. Factors that affect this can be variable including the players they are playing with. Are they compatible, are they on the same wavelength, do they hit it off? Do they feel less pressure to perform so have nothing to lose and so do well?

What i am getting at is that at our level, players are much of a muchness and i believe it is all about gambles. If Ling plays it safe and insists on only getting someone in if they are better than what we have then IMO we are going nowhere. How does he know that X striker or Y striker is not going to be as good as Jarvis for example? He might come in on loan and just click and bang, we've got a few extra wins. Of course he might come in and play like a morbidly obese earthworm and not score but IF THE GAMBLE IS NOT TAKEN we'll never know. If we can get players in short term and not be financially worse off then i believe we must do it. Like Dave (forevertufc) says, the amount of cash we've got / not got is up for debate but gambles are what gets teams the few extra points needed to achieve what they want to achieve. If it doesn't work then you haven't really lost anything much. What i am trying to say is that i believe Ling's statement is a nonsense. The only possible way of knowing if a loanee striker will be better then what we've got is by actually bringing someone in and playing him and finding out! There IS NO OTHER WAY of finding this out so i find what he said to be cautious beyond the extreme and again, negative.

I respect Martin for giving the players the opportunity to dig in and see if they can come good, it shows trust, faith and respect but if those players aren't quite good enough to do the business then it's an honourable mistake. A mistake which i am 100% certain cost us promotion last season when we desperately needed a striker or two to give us that lift and maybe a few more goals to lift us over the line. We were starting to falter a few months out and we just needed that 5% more. Ling brought Jarvis in too late and his lack of pro-activity in the market spoiled all the immense work he had done getting us into such a position.

IMO we NEED a striker in NOW. If it goes t*ts up then it's not the end of the world. Martin gets brownie points for being pro-active, NOT making the same mistake as last season and we lose nothing much. If it works then it was worth it. It's all quite obvious to me so i struggle to understand him when he says things like, " If we end up with someone, i want someone to come in for four months who will make us better".

Admirable words Martin but you're not gonna know if they have made us better unless you bring someone in. It isn't a theoretical game. You get them in, play them and see how it pans out. Simple as really.

[Southampton Gull]

Or you spend money you don't have and put your clubs future at risk. The Board know we can't afford to go up, it's been the same for the last few seasons. Consolidate, improve the foundations of the Club and only move forward at a rate the club can sustain. It isn't rocket science and may frustrate the less understanding fan but I've supported TUFC for 45 years and want it there for my kids to support for the next 45 years. Blowing money on players to get promotion we can't afford just isn't going to happen. Stop wishing for the impossible and realise we will progress little by little, on our limited resources what else do people expect?

Ling is doing a fantastic job, he's given the Club half a million in transfer fees after having the spine ripped out of his team and remedying that isn't something that can be done easily. Give him time and I believe he'll get there. Too many people can't see the bigger picture and can only comment on the here and the now.

[gullintwoplaces]

Completely agree with you SG. very well put.

[Lloyder5]

Me too. And in the meantime, I am sure the management will be working hard with Bodin to make sure he hits his purple patch.

[Jeff]

Agree with the above sentiments.

Despite the flack, for me Ling is doing a great job. Last season went miles beyond expectations - we had an inordinate number of players who had the season of their lives. On the back of that we were able to make a tidy slab of money, but that situation where so many things click together only comes around once in a blue moon.

This season, having had to do a second hasty rebuild in succession, we haven't had the same good fortune with injuries, form etc. I don't see it as an issue with Ling's tactics as such, its just that we don't have the players to carry it off.

Frustrating as it is to see us miss chances, throw points away etc, what I can see is that we have a capable squad with the budget we have, and any excess is being put into the infrastructure of the club. The training ground, the bench, the big screen can all have impacts on and off the field for future years. If one or two seasons of mid-table obscurity (when was the last time we had one of those!) means that we can sustain and build for the next 10 years then its a neccessary evil. I wouldn't want to see the club throw itself to the wall just for a promotion we aren't ready for.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Or you spend money you don't have and put your clubs future at risk. The Board know we can't afford to go up, it's been the same for the last few seasons. Consolidate, improve the foundations of the Club and only move forward at a rate the club can sustain. It isn't rocket science and may frustrate the less understanding fan but I've supported TUFC for 45 years and want it there for my kids to support for the next 45 years. Blowing money on players to get promotion we can't afford just isn't going to happen. Stop wishing for the impossible and realise we will progress little by little, on our limited resources what else do people expect?

Ling is doing a fantastic job, he's given the Club half a million in transfer fees after having the spine ripped out of his team and remedying that isn't something that can be done easily. Give him time and I believe he'll get there. Too many people can't see the bigger picture and can only comment on the here and the now.

I bow to your greater knowledge on all things TUFC Dave but are you sure this is right? If so, is it just me who has been in the dark for the last few years or is every other member on here aware of this? I accept we have had great expenditure in recent years on the infrastructure of the club and that obviously will have a detrimental outcome on the availabilty of funds for the manager to spend but i had little idea that i was supporting a team who didn't want to achieve success because they can't afford it. I'm not less understanding Dave, i fully accept that we have little money due to the Bench being built etc and i know it's difficult for everybody at the club financially but all i was suggesting in bringing in a player for 4 months which is hardly going to render us bankrupt, with all due respect. Maybe we don't want to go up and consolidation is what it is to be but in my slightly warped and unforgiving book :~D the club owe it to the fans that pay their money week in week out to do the best they can and if that means unexpectedly getting promotion then so be it. I'm not one of these people who say that teams 'went up too soon' and they weren't ready. It is down to the manager and the board to adjust circumstances to deal with this change. Obviously it's a balancing act and like you say, the last thing we want is to stretch ourselves financially and end up going to the wall and maybe to have seasons of consolidation is perfectly acceptable for the board. I myself however would struggle to come to terms with my club not wanting to get the best out of what they have in the here and now. It's a short term view but if what you say is correct then if the club had come out and made a statement at the beginning of the season stating their intention to consolidate this season and promotion is not a priority then i would have lots of respect for them. I can accept that and i would still go to the games because i support Torquay but having not been massively mislead and defrauded almost. I know some of you will have a go for me not being able to see the bigger picture and in part you would be correct, i want the club and the board to be honest with me and and if that means telling me things i don't want to hear then that's fine. If what Dave says is true and the board are secretly over the moon to stay in league 2 just because they can save a few more quid then, without the courtesy of a pre-season statement to that effect i find it sickening. The fans who then don't wish to pay through the nose to watch a set up of board, team and manager not doing the utmost ( within limits ) to do the best they can, they can make a decision whether to renew season tickets or not come to games. I would like to think that we are all TUFC fans regardless and nobody but would do this but we should be told and people should be straight down the line.

Again, i know it's an eccentric point of view and i'm going to get some stick but i just see it as honest and decent and that is all i ask.

Good post though Dave!

[Plymouth Gull]

SG has said basically what I've been trying to say, but he put it better.